Beautiful Melancholy
by xotakux2002x
Summary: darkish kakuhidan. blood looks gorgeous on any surface; be it pure white snow, or human skin. yaoi, oneshot


"This fucking bounty had better be worth freezing our asses off," Hidan grumbled. Kakuzu sighed. The cold weather had made Hidan's swearing even worse than usual, a feat the banker hadn't thought was possible. "Must you swear every time you open your mouth?"

"Hell yeah."

"In that case, keep your mouth shut."

"Don't take your fucking anger out on me! You're the genius that decided to take this fucking job! You wanna know why the hell the fucking bounty's so high for this bastard?! Because no sane person is fucking stupid enough to take on a fucking assassination in the fucking Land of FUCKING SNOW!!!"

Hidan had a point. It was about 5 degrees outside (without the wind chill) and they were trudging through 2 feet of snow to get to some backwater village to kill a no-one that their client had a grudge against. Hidan hadn't wanted to come along in the first place; Kakuzu hadn't been able to convince him that this was a good idea, so he punched off Hidan's head and reattached it to his body only after they arrived. Hidan could have turned back still, but for some inexplicable reason he decided to stay. Quite frankly, the Jashinist thought he was entitled to a little bitching in this situation.

"Look, if you hate it that much, just go back to the base."

"That'll take weeks! I might as well fucking stay here." Hidan muttered.

Kakuzu smirked. "I knew it. You just like hearing yourself bitch." His eyes darted to the trees on the left, and he stopped. "Well, well. It appears that some idiots have decided to follow us." He turned to look at Hidan. "If you're really that pissed, just take your anger out on them." The sentence was barely out of his mouth before Hidan ran towards the trees. A second later the banker heard two screams. Three more ninjas decided to jump out then, aiming for Kakuzu. Kakuzu ripped the first two in half with his threads, using his hands to snap the third man's neck. Several more screams were coming from deeper in the woods. Apparently Hidan had sensed some enemies that had gone unnoticed by him. He ran in, wanting to make sure none got away.

He arrived just in time to see Hidan slice the last one in half. He had to give his partner credit; he knew how to use that scythe of his. Kakuzu stared at Hidan, who was grinning like a maniac and covered in blood. When the Jashinist finally noticed his partner, the grin fell from his face. "What the hell are you looking at?"

"The snow," Kakuzu lied. Hidan raised an eyebrow. "There's blood everywhere," Kakuzu continued, "And because everything around here is covered in white snow, the red blood shows up all too well." Hidan looked around and swore again. The banker was right. It didn't matter that they had killed all the enemies; the blood on the ground would be enough of an indicator for anyone to figure out that there were enemy ninjas in town. Hidan kicked one of the dead bodies angrily, hearing several satisfying cracks. "What the fuck do we do now?"

"Hide the bodies and try to throw newer snow on top of the blood." Hidan raised an eyebrow again and picked up a corpse, looking for a cave or crevice to dump it in. The cleanup took much longer than either one wanted, but at last they were satisfied with their job, and resumed walking on the road.

They reached their target's location around midnight, and realized that any information they had gotten on the security was outdated. The two of them decided to spend the next day gathering information on the building and its defenses before they tried to assassinate the man inside.

After spending the day observing the building and its inhabitants closely, they realized that once you got inside, there was virtually nothing to stop an assassination. It would make things that much easier for them, and put them in a fairly good mood. Everything was fine, until they got back to the hotel room and found out the heater was broken.

"Leave it to your cheap ass to find the only fucking hotel with a busted heater." Hidan was wrapped up in his cloak, two layers of clothing, and all the blankets on the bed, shooting death glares at Kakuzu, who was on the other side of the room.

"Shut the fuck up, Hidan. I hate the cold as much as you."

Hidan wasn't about to back down. "Then why the hell did you take this fucking job?! Are you that fucking stupid?!"

Kakuzu had had it. "You know what?! I really don't give a damn about what you think! You're here because you wanted to be, so quit being such a whiny little bitch! If you hate it that much, just fucking go home already!"

Hidan threw off the blankets and sent Kakuzu a spiteful glare. "FINE, ASSHOLE, I WILL!" He got up, grabbed his scythe, and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Kakuzu blinked at the door for a moment, not registering what had just happened. When it finally hit him though, he had to sit down. He honestly hadn't expected Hidan to walk out on him like this. He was tempted to go after the Jashinist, but his damnable pride held him back.

Outside the door, Hidan was also in shock. He couldn't believe he'd just walked out on his partner. Sure, their arguments usually led to violence (Kakuzu would get stabbed, he'd get his arms broken) but he'd never just _abandoned_ his partner like this. He truly wanted to just walk back into the room, but he knew Kakuzu would laugh at him, or call him weak. Hidan walked out of the hotel, then began running out of the town, heading in the direction of home before he could have a chance to change his mind.

The next morning, Kakuzu got up early. The murder was going to happen, with or without the assistance of his partner. He sighed as he packed up; they hadn't really brought to much, just some food and a change of clothes. He decided to leave the bags behind; there was nothing in them that was irreplaceable, and they'd only slow him down on the way back. And the last thing he needed was anything that would hinder him. This assassination was going to be hard enough without Hidan around to help, but oh well. After checking everything, Kakuzu left the room, prepared to kill.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Hidan had finally stopped to take a break. He sat under a tree and glanced at the world of white around him. This place was much too peaceful for his liking. It was the kind of peace you didn't want to disturb, a silence that you were scared to break. It meant that he had nothing to distract him from the fight with Kakuzu.

Hidan ran his fingers through his hair, not sure what he should do. It would be easiest to just keep going, go home, and wait for Kakuzu to show up. He'd apologize, Kakuzu would be an ass, they'd fight, and eventually things would return to normal. Or about as normal as things could get for them.

_But…_ Hidan grabbed his stomach. He had a nervous feeling. Ok, it was more like an overwhelming sense of foreboding. But that was just stupid. Kakuzu was the strongest fighter he'd ever met. It would be pretty damn hard to kill a bastard with five hearts. _Then why do I have this feeling?..._ Hidan sighed and rose to his feet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kakuzu was running through the woods, cursing Hidan for running out on him. He'd taken out the target, but still had enemies trying to find him. He'd been cut up pretty well, blood pouring out of his right leg, his left arm completely useless. He tried to lose them in the forest, but these shinobi were on their home turf, and knew the area much better than the banker did, never mind the fact that Kakuzu was leaving a trail of blood behind him. It was getting harder and harder to keep the distance between them. Finally, he stopped and turned, leaning against a tree. He couldn't keep running like this anymore, the blood loss and cold were getting to him. He might as well fight them.

When they finally caught up, two young females rushed for him. The first one was stabbed through the chest by his threads, but he couldn't stop the other one before she stabbed his torso (fortunately missing his vital organs). He swore and smashed her skull against a tree, and she fell like a rock.

He grabbed the tree for support. Dammit, he was losing too much blood….a cruel laugh came from behind him. He glared at the leader of the group. He wanted to say the guy was called Maki, but he wasn't sure.

"You're an idiot." He stated, smirking at Kakuzu. There were 6 other ninjas left, and they were all in much better shape than Kakuzu. "What kind of moron would try to take on so many people by themselves? It's suicide."

Kakuzu chuckled, sinking to his knees. "Yeah well, my partner more or less ran out on me, but I didn't feel like abandoning this job over such a minor setback."

Maki smiled. "I can't say I blame him. If I had someone like you around all the time, I'd probably run away too."

Ouch. That hurt. Kakuzu was getting annoyed with him. "Are you ever gonna attack, or do you intend to talk me to death? If it's the later, you're doing a pretty good job of it."

Maki glared. "Fine. You wanna die?" Two of his subordinates moved forward. "Then who am I to hinder you?" both ninja moved closer to the injured Akatsuki member. "I hope you enjoy hell!" They ran forward, and Kakuzu reached for the only paper bomb he had left.

SLAAAAAAASH

Kakuzu stared. No, he wasn't seeing this, there was no way in hell that he was seeing this. Hidan was in front of him, holding his scythe in one hand, both enemies now lying in pieces before him. He was glaring daggers at Maki. "Get the hell away before I kill you all," he hissed.

Maki smirked. "I don't think so." A wave of his hand, and two more rushed forward. Hidan swung at sliced the first one in half, turning to slash the other one as well. As soon as they were dead, he ran toward the remaining three, killing two of them with one swing, splattering their blood everywhere. Maki stared in disbelief as Hidan ran him through with the pike on the end of his scythe. Panting heavily, he pulled out his scythe, grinning. He turned and walked over to Kakuzu. "C'mon, dumbass, let's go." Kakuzu didn't move. He felt so cold…

Hidan raised an eyebrow, his grin slowly disappearing. "Didn't you hear me? Let's fucking go already!"

"I can't."

Hidan squatted down on his knees and looked Kakuzu in the eyes. "What the hell do you mean, 'you can't'?"

"Hidan, you found this spot because you followed a trail of blood, right?" The Jashinist nodded. Kakuzu gave him a weak smile. "All that blood…was mine."

Hidan eyes widened as it finally clicked. "Shit!" he pulled back the fabric on Kakuzu shirt, noticing the deep wounds for the first time. Nervously, he pressed his ear against Kakuzu's chest, and his eyes got even wider. All five hearts in his partner's chest were slowing down. Kakuzu simply stared at his partner, a tired smile on his face.

"Dammit, we need to find a cave or something to hide in, we've gotta get you patched up soon, Jashin dammit-"

"You're beautiful."

_"Huh?!"_ Hidan stopped talking and stared at his partner. "What did you just-" Kakuzu brought a hand up to Hidan's cheek. "I said you're beautiful. I've always loved watching you fight and rip people apart with that scythe of yours. You always look so beautiful...covered in blood…" Kakuzu's eyes were closing.

Hidan began shaking him violently. "Stay awake, you fucking son of a bitch!" He picked Kakuzu up in a fireman's carry ("Dammit to hell, you're going on a fucking diet!") and carried him deeper into the woods, looking for any kind of shelter. He yelled in Kakuzu's ear, bit his arm, and did everything in his power to keep his partner awake, even if it meant that he was probably going to be torn into tiny little pieces later. Finally, he found a cave. Quickly he set down Kakuzu and tore of strips of his partner's bloodied shirt. Kakuzu had left the first aid kit back in their room, so it was the best he could do. After he had treated the most severe wounds, Hidan quickly ran out to get some firewood, returning every few minutes and slapping Kakuzu to keep him awake. At last, he was able to get a fire going, but wasn't sure if it would help or not. Hmm…..

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Kakuzu woke up a few hours later, keeping his eyes shut. He didn't remember drifting off. What he DID remember was Hidan being a pain in the ass and doing a bunch of annoying shit to keep him awake. Kakuzu's infamous temper was flaring up again. Oh, his partner was so far beyond dead right now…it was then that he noticed a weight on his chest. He cracked an eye open and saw white. No, wait…silver. His eyes opened all the way.

Hidan was lying on top of him.

He quickly sat up and shoved Hidan off of him, sending the Jashinist flying into a wall and prompting him to swear loudly. "Hidan, what the hell?!"

For the briefest instant, Kakuzu could have sworn he saw a flicker of relief in Hidan's eyes. Before it was replaced by rage. "I was keeping your dumb ass warm!"

"….You wanna run that by me again?"

Hidan looked away, his cheeks turning red. "You were in the snow for a while, and you were freezing cold. One of the worst things you can do to a person with hypothermia is warm them up too fast, 'cause that kills them. One of the easiest ways to warm up a person in that situation…" his blush deepened, "is to transfer body heat."

Kakuzu stared at his partner in disbelief. "Hidan…"

"What?"

Kakuzu grinned. "You actually talked without swearing."

The Jashinist got even redder. "That's all you can say?! I had to fucking come back and save you, you nearly froze your freaking ass off, I ended up beating the shit out of you to keep you awake, you wake up with me on your fucking chest, and all you can say is that you're surprised I opened my mouth without saying fuck?!?!" Hidan panted heavily, completely out of breath.

Kakuzu frowned, moving toward Hidan. _"Shit, I made him mad again!"_ Hidan knew he was about to be ripped apart and curled up into a ball, shutting his eyes tightly. "Hidan…" "Look, I only smacked you around to keep you awake, so go easy on me, you-" he shut up as he felt Kakuzu pick him up and slide Hidan into his lap.

_"What the hell?!"_ Hidan tensed as Kakuzu nuzzled him gently. "So warm…" _Ahh, so that was it._ Very slowly, Hidan relaxed and leaned against his partner. He stiffened as he felt Kakuzu shift, but he was only stretching out, pulling the Jashinist down with him. Tentatively, Hidan wrapped his arms around his partner, while the banker slid his arms down to Hidan's hips. They fell asleep as the fire died down.

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The next week, they got to their client's location to collect the reward. Unfortunately for them, their client tried to weasel out of paying, and ordered his bodyguards to kill them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~20 minutes later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dumbass should've just paid up," Hidan stated, kicking a dead body out of the way. He was covered from head to foot in blood. "Hey, Kakuzu, are we gonna look for his safe, or what?" The banker in question turned to Hidan, opening his mouth to answer, but stopped and shut his mouth for some unknown reason. He slowly began walking towards Hidan.

Hidan raised a brow. "Kakuzu, say something, dammit! You're really freaking me out here…" Kakuzu had stopped right in front of him. Hidan's eyes widened as Kakuzu gently tilted his chin up. "I wasn't screwing around when I said you're beautiful like this." Before the Jashinist could react, Kakuzu captured his lips in a kiss.

It only lasted a few moments, but it felt much longer to Hidan. Kakuzu finally broke the kiss, smiling down at him. "Now, let's find out where he keeps his cash."

Hidan smiled and nodded, and the two walked off to find their pay.


End file.
